October 17, 2025 • 39 mins
Common Man Hour 1 -- Big Bites -- Jonathan Greenard -- Pete Bercich
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
And when comes off, Tom has gone again and fills
in the three there.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Can be an answer Tenby.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And in those hours of darkness was turning out royalty
to the fans. Mis John ta be.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Tenna be. Tell to me tenab tenno be the desert,
tell me, hey, welcome to day two of the ten
(01:04):
Fitzgerald to come and Dan Cole off again today golfing
somewhere in the upper Midwest. But I will be here
Brandon Maleski tennebe for the next three hours. Devin with
me as well. Hello, Devin, Hello, lots of lifeboats today
at twelve thirty. Of course, you know Friday before a
Vikings Eagles game, we got get Pete Bursa John analysts
(01:25):
for the Vikings Raady Network, so he'll join about twenty
five minutes from now. We'll be at one o'clock today.
She's actually going to be in for the entire one
o'clock hour because we will not play program passor today,
but we will get bonus b Joe O'Donnell played by
play voice on the radio side for the Minnesota while
joins the two o'clock and then Justin Guard Sideline analyst
for the Gopher Radio Network he'll join us live from
(01:47):
Huntington Banks Stadium at two thirty previewing that Gopher Nebraska
game that you'll be able to hear tonight right here
on the station. But it's Vikings Eagles Sunday and devn In.
My least favorite part of the day over the last
six seven weeks is whenever the injury report comes out.
(02:09):
I always dread looking at it. Even before the season started,
right we didn't have darrisaw CJ. Hamm was beat up
right out of the gate, and then from that point
on the offensive line, Ryan Kelly's been on there multiple
times with concussions, Brian O'Neill with the knee injury, Donovan
Jackson needing the wrist surgery after he'd just got done
(02:31):
playing a game, Aaron Jones out for a good chunk
of time, had to start the season without Jordan Addison
for three games because of suspension. That's only on the
offensive side of the ball. Defensive side of the ball.
Andrew ben Ginkels missed a couple of games, cash in
cash out, Blake Cashman has missed what four games? And
(02:51):
we finally got to the points this week where I
started to enjoy looking at the injury report again, Donovan
Jackson and looks like he's going to go. Brian O'Neil,
looks like he's going to go. Even Christian Darisa, who's
been playing. Apparently they talked it out. He's not going
to be on a pitch count this week, though he
did get the day off the other day. Cashman back
(03:13):
in the lineup, Bing Ginkle. Don't know about him, and
I guess we'll find out probably at some point to day.
But he's at least participating in practice on a limited basis.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And then.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We had to get our legs sweeped out from under
us yesterday, went out of nowhere. Didn't even see it,
didn't even see a reporter tweet at first. It just
popped up on the injury report. Jonathan Garnard limited with
a hamstring injury. Now, maybe it's nothing. Whenever I hear hamstring,
(03:47):
I'm not. I'm usually not encouraged. Hands are scary. Yeah,
those things can pop up and linger and come right
back at you. Also, this wasn't an injury that happened
at a previous game, where hey, he's working his way
through it. He wasn't even on the injury report Wednesday,
and all of a sudden, it pops up yesterday just
happens to be the same time. Alec Lewis of The
(04:09):
Athletic also tweeted. Jonathan Garnard has recorded an average time
to pressure of two point three four seconds this season,
the quickest mark among defensive linemen with at least fifteen
total pressures. Bernard has generated more pressures in under two
and a half seconds twelve than any other Vikings pass
rusher has total pressures. Opposing offenses have attempted to slow Gernard,
(04:33):
as he has been chip blocked seventeen times, while all
other Vikings pass rushers have been chipped twenty three combined times.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
He is.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
I don't know if you can say we have an
MVP on the defense, but if it is, it's him,
right like I got. I don't know any other option.
There's no I guess vaning Goingko last year obviously had
some moments where he was very MVP like, But you're
kind of just solid every but not not elite star
power really on much of this defense. I guess if
(05:06):
you're all in on Isaiah Rodgers, I still think maybe
that was all just just one performance against Cincinnati. That's
really lifted them up. But Jonathan Garnard is the most
important piece of this defense. And now you're playing a
Philadelphia team that I think is going to rely on
the run much more than they are of the pass.
(05:27):
Maybe you can get away with it, but Devin, I'm
not so sure if And like I said, this might
be nothing. This might be a nothing burger. By the
time two hours from now and we see the injury
port come back out and it says Jonathan Garnard full
participant in practice, and then I just got myself teeth
chattering for no reason. Fine, but as of this very
moment at twelve ten pm, I'm a little concerned. After
(05:50):
I thought we had kind of gotten past all this
injury stuff.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Yeah, this was kind of my fear the whole time
when we had all the injuries weeks ago, was once
we finally get everyone back, who's going to go down then?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Because it always feels like, how are you twenty three
and you already have that Minnesota sports mentality in you?
Speaker 6 (06:07):
It's just ingrained in my Yeah, but you know it's
the NFL. People get hurt all the time. So I
suppose for like people, I'm going to call you a kid.
I shouldn't call you a kid. People that are your age.
You've experienced like nothing in Minnesota sports. At least, I
even though I didn't get to see the Vikings in
the super Bowl in the seventies, at least I got
(06:30):
to witness two World Series victories in eighty seven and
ninety one from the Twins, I've at least seen like
elite Minnesota Vikings teams, like the nineteen ninety eight Vikings
is probably the best team I've ever seen in the state,
even though they didn't even get to the Big Game.
I at least saw like a wild playoff run in
two those three You've like witnessed none of this. Now
we have pop up seasons at least five years with
(06:52):
at least the Wolves are starting to come around a
little bit before.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
That's true. All right, We're gonna have to break a
little bit early because I want to get to Big
Bites next, because we have a lot of a lot
of stuff to talk about with only one segment really, uh,
kind of one open segment throughout the rest of the show.
So we're gonna do Big Bites next.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You should have a keyword over though, correct, Evan, Yes.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
I do the fan and two minutes a junk truck
want to give you a shot to win some bonus
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at kfan dot com. Now for your shot at winning
that's keyword dollar, enter it now at kf a n
dot com.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Hey ten of Fitzgerald Devin with me as well time
four big bites. Let's begin with the icy hot Bowl
last night Bengals versus Steelers. Bengals had the lead, then
a Rodgs took over.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Steelers need junk yardage second and twenty from their own
thirty two down six on the road on Thursday night,
two thirty one to go, fourth quarter, Rogers having a
gun four by two and two. He faints back near left,
Hash runs out of it hit he fires DA one out.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
Can twenty five twenty Steelers the second of the nine
from Pat for he goes sixty eight. Your Bards got
to strike.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Hey tison at.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Thirty and an extra point could have been a Steelers' lead.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, the Steelers take over late, they take the lead,
but Joe Flacco leads the Bengals down the field and
it ends with this.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Thirty six yard field goal try for the lead eleven
seconds to go down one left to right kick for
McPherson out of the holda rica first fourth field goal
of the game and the lead snap spot right put
the kickers in the air. He's got the lad He
drive it thirty three thirty one, Cincinnati's seven seconds remain.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah. Before that play, t Higgins actually caught a pass
looked like he could have easily scored. He slides down
at about the five yard line. So they can take
a bunch of chunk off at the clock and the
Cincinnia Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers last night. They snapped
their four game losing streak. They win thirty three to
thirty one. Both quarterbacks in this one extremely good. Joe
Flacco thirty one of forty seven for three hundred and
(09:49):
forty two yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. Jamar Chase at
a franchise record with sixteen catches for one hundred and
sixty one yards in a tuddy and then on the
other side, Aaron Rodgers twenty three of thirty four for
two hundred and forty nine yards, four touchdowns, two interceptions.
I don't know what it is about Aaron Rodgers this year.
(10:10):
And maybe this will change. I feel like I don't
dislike him as much this year as I have in
the past. Seems like he's happy. Yeah, Like, well, you know, obviously,
when he was with the Packers for so long, you
don't like him because he's the place for the Packers
and he was smug and he was arrogant and he
did the discount double check celebration, and you know, then
he went to New York and he still seems to
(10:30):
kind of be grumpy Aaron Rodgers and says some controversial things.
And now I just feel like, maybe now that he's
over the forty year mark, like he's just kind of
matured a little bit and he's smiling and happy. I'm like, now,
I wasn't cheering for him last night because I still
have that ingrained in me. But I'm like, I just wasn't.
I wasn't hate watching Aaron Rodgers as much as I
(10:52):
have in the past. So maybe he's evolving and turning
over a new leaf.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
He might be say he's in the NFC RIGHTFC big bite.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
He was in the FC last year as well. A
couple of Major League Baseball games. The Dodgers look like
they're about to go to the World Series.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
That's a line round the center field. That's downfa Ba's head.
Here comes Smith fail. It's got a great ard. It's
cut off from the field, not in time. Tommy Emman
puts the Dodgers in front head that on the first pitch,
delivers of the clutch again and the Dodgers came to Messowski.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
At the sixth heading. Yeah, Edmund with the RBI single
gives him the lead and then it's closed out by
the Dodgers. Cut it game.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
The Dodgers win it. Sasaki closes the door. Los Angeles
wins hid three to one. They are eight and one
in this postseason, steam rolling their way through this playoff run,
and they are a win away from their fifth in
Al pittitt in the last nine years.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, Dodgers up three to nothing in this series, about
to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers. As you just heard on
the play by play called They're eight and one so
far in this postseason. In this series against Milwaukee, Brewers
have scored just three runs in twenty seven innings. Game
four is tonight in la versus Milliwaukee seven thirty start show.
Hey Otani on the Mountain Tonight for La and then
(12:27):
in the American League.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
Therrero drives the ball the other way. Ken zones going back,
he's at the wall, that's gone. Glegg Junior strikes again
with his fifth home run of the postseason. Toronto takes
the run right back.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, Mariners had loved this series. Two nothing. Blue Jays
have won the last two to even it up two
to two. That win last night, eight to two. He
just heard the highlight Vladimir Guerrero his fifth home run
of the postseason and kind of the story. Last name
was Max Scherzer. Another old guy, another guy who's Flacco
rodger Age. He had a tumultuous end to his season
(13:05):
where he because it was so bad he wasn't even
on the Alds roster for their first series. But then
he gets to start last night and gives up just
two runs on three hits over five and two thirds innings.
At one point the manager comes out looks like he's
gonna pull them, and he had the He basically had
his own Jack Morris moment of you are not taking
(13:26):
me out of this game, and he finished it off
with the strike out. So good for Max Scherzer. Yeah,
Toronto and Seattle that one's at five o'clock today at
the Pivotal at game five in the ALCS Big Bites.
The Gophers playing a little Friday night lights tonight. It's
under the lifes.
Speaker 9 (13:44):
Boy, this is great, especially with NEA. We don't have
a lot of high school football in Minnesota today, so
crowd is going to be absolutely elite and just looking
forward to the opportunity to be hosting a top twenty
five team here ranked team, a really good Nebraska team
and a really good Goper team, so it should be
great matchup.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, and PJ talks about Matt Rule, the head coach
for Nebraska.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
I think Matt Rule's done a really good job of
using the resources that Nebraska has and building the best
team he possibly could here in year three and you
can just see it progressing year one. Not much control
of that here, two, you're building it, and then year three,
I mean you look top to bottom. Their depth is
as good as anybody in the country and as good
as anybody we've played.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I'm going to talk a little bit about this with
Justin Guard when he joins at two thirty today. But
I don't like how PJ likes Matt Rules so much
because I love the little rivalry of PJ. Fleck and
Scott Frost. When Frost was there, Frost just despise PJ.
Fleck would always make little snide comments about the way
(14:44):
PJ runs this program, and then the Gophers will just
go out and kick their butt every time. And I
miss that. Gophers, excuse me. The Cornhusters. By the way,
five and one in the season. The only loss is
just a three point loss to Michigan. They are up
to number twenty five in the Associated Press Pull after
two games in a row now where they've come up
big in the fourth quarter against Maryland and Michigan State.
(15:06):
And obviously their quarterback Riola, he's been the story. He's
completed seventy three point one percent of as passes for
ninety one yards, sixteen touchdowns and five interceptions. Gophers have
one five straight against Nebraska, six and one under PJ. Fleck.
This is a different Nebraska team, but hopefully some of
that will carry over tonight seven o'clock start tonight pregame
(15:28):
at five. That game will be heard right here on
the fans. You can just stick around all day. Big
bites Minnesota Wild or in the Nation's Capital to take
on the Capital six o'clock start tonight and John Hines.
Everyone's freaking out about their five on five play, but
not John Hines.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Things get magnified in the beginning of the season, right,
no matter what it is. I think when you look
at the you know, our game and the style of
team that we have and the type of team that
we have, I feel like we're getting them. There's things
we can certainly improve upon, but I think we have.
We've had good puck pressure, We've had some good looks.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
At this point, I think if we if we don't
focus on the end result of that and what is
our process and here's the good parts of it, here's
where we can be a little bit better, I think
it will come.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
If you want to be concerned about five on five,
that's fine. As much as you're concerned about the five
on five, you should be elated with the power play
because as of right now, it looks like the greatest
power play we've seen in franchise history. Wild already are
almost a quarter of the way to their powerplay output
from last season. In four games, they're already a quarter
of the way. Last year, they scored forty three goals
(16:37):
in the power play. They already got ten. Through four games,
they're nine consecutive goals on the powerplay, one shy of
matching the two thousand and six two thousand and seven
Sharks for the second longest streak in NHL history, and
the nineteen eighty eight nineteen ninety nine Penguins hold the
record at twelve. So we got a chance to make
NHL history here. Let's go if we can score three,
so that means enough you shut down five on five,
(16:59):
but we just score more goals on the power play.
Tonight we'll break without a five on five goal, we'll
break the NHL record. John Hines also talks about a
guy running that power play. That would be the rookie
defenseman Ze Billiam It's one of his skill sets, you know.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
I think that he's probably some of the playoff experience
last year helped him. And then I think coming in
even in preseason, I think he was trying to do
some things. Now I think he starts to realize how
quick your decision making needs to be and this fine
tune things of habits and details at this level that
he's learning, and he's learning quick.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Now when you combine that with his.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Natural ability to run a power play at his offensive instincts.
That's why I think it's progressing.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Love the way Zeve is progressing. You can see his
confidence growing every single game this season, and the Dallas
Stars game their last time out, I thought that was
the best he's played in a Wild uniform. And you
can just tell he's playing with aggression. He's jumping up
in the play, he's getting involved in the offensive zone,
but he's doing it with calm and confidence in himself
(18:05):
that he can make the right play. He's not scared
to make mistakes out there, and I think that's very
important for a rookie so early on in his career.
By the way, the Wild did send another defenseman, the
other young defenseman, David Yeerchik, down to the miners. I
have not been too excited about his play so far
in his limited action with the Wild, ever since they
(18:25):
acquired him for a lot of prospects, a lot of
draft picks early in last season. By the way, Philip
Gustafson will get the start tonight for the while that's
a six o'clock start, I'm going to assume, and I
probably shouldn't assume I'm going to assume maybe they're on
cool and wait, tonight, I'll have to look at the schedule.
I shouldn't have done that. Last one. Big bites go
(18:47):
for basketball team. They beat North Dakota State by a
score of what was the score? Hold on, I'll get
it here. Eighty to fifty four exhibition last night they
beat North Dakota State, and Nico Medved was happy with
the with the initial start, felt good to.
Speaker 10 (19:06):
Be back out there.
Speaker 11 (19:07):
You know, this is this game.
Speaker 10 (19:08):
Typically we've done close scrimmages in these situations. But I thought,
you know, before when we scheduled this, it'd be great.
First year we can play Division ones. Thought'd be great
for us to play a game against kind of a
regional school. I think it's got a great program. Get
tested right away, and you could tell there were some
nerves early. Thought our guys handled it really really well
(19:29):
and played hard and finally started getting some stops and
getting out in transition a little bit. So it kind
of feels good to get that first one under your
belt and ready to keep growing.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And it felt good for cad Tyson to the North
Carolina transfer twenty eight points last night. He was nine
to thirteen from the field, six of nine from three
point line. Also perfect from the free throw line, making
all four attempts, So a nice debut for the transfer
from North Carolina Kye Tyson. The Gophers began regular season
action on November three, when they host Gardner Web. That's
(20:00):
it for Big Bite. The analyst for the Vikings rate
and network, Pete Versus joins the fits next to Manday.
(20:23):
All Right, Vikings sick on the Eagles Sunday at noon
at US Bank Stadium. So when it's a Friday on
the ten fit rail before Vikings game, we got to
have the analysts for the Vikings radio network, Pete Burst.
So Pete joins us. Now, Hello, Peter, how are you
great to have you back on us soil.
Speaker 11 (20:39):
It is good to be back, Tanna, thank you very much.
And yeah it's wide open spaces. It's very ramped over there,
but beautiful and old. But yeah, it's it's great to
be back.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
What did you think about the trip? Was the was
two games back to back across the pond a little
too much?
Speaker 11 (21:02):
No, I mean you'd like to think that it was,
but I mean, I I really, I really gotta give
a tip of the cap to guys like Paul Martin
and and their group, the logistics group, where I mean
literally they make it so easy that you just have
to know one time, you just need to know where
(21:23):
to be, uh and they do all the rest from
the passports to customs that, I mean, everything else, so
they make it as smooth as possible. And then I
mean just the logistics involved and everything. And that's been
kind of the value of the Vikings having gone over
there so many times. I mean, that was our fifth
trip to London, just we've you know, we've done it before.
(21:46):
And you know, the proof I think was that was
a factor. I think in that in that football game
against the Cleveland Browns at least that you know, having
been there the entire week and you know, being able
to put in a good week not losing anything because
the coaches are not in their offices. And I mean,
(22:07):
there's there's a reason that building in Egan is so
big because they need all that stuff and you can't
move all of it. But they still found a way
to get enough over there to make, you know, to
come up with the win. So I think it's it's
a big win and you know, you can't overlook operations
and everything else, the equipment staff and everybody else that
(22:29):
worked their tail off to make that happen.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
I know our listeners are getting sick of the Wentz
McCarthy talk, but I'm going to ask it one more
time because I don't know if I've heard you talk
about it. If if you were the head coach in
the Minnesota while and this is this is a hypothetical,
if JJ McCarthy was one that's the hypothetical. If JJ
McCarthy was one hundred percent and you were the head
coach in Theissida Vikings, who would you start a quarterback
this week?
Speaker 11 (22:53):
Yeah, I mean that's that's a tough one. I mean,
in my opinion right now, uh Arson Wentz is playing better.
I mean, and of the two and you. One thing
I did see in London against Cleveland is that he's
finally developing a rapport with Justin Jefferson. Right. He's finally
(23:16):
giving him some shots at the fifty to fifty ball.
He's finally hitting them with the back shoulder fade on
press coverage here and there. It's it's curious to see
if that continues to develop, if there's more to that
relationship that can be squeezed out of it, you know,
(23:38):
and then we talked about J. J. McCarthy. Obviously you're
talking about the future, and so I mean, these are
these are high level decisions that coach and the and
quasi del famensa need to make and say how long
until we turn everything over? I mean, obviously, this guy's
our future. That's why we drafted them at when you know,
(23:59):
when we did the top of the first round, they
knew that when they drafted him that someday it would
be his football team. And so the question is how
long do you want to delay that? How badly do
you want to win now? And that's I mean, if
you're if you're a coach, you want to win now
right you know, next year and the year after. You
(24:23):
don't have the time. You can't worry about that stuff
because it's not guaranteed. Nothing's guaranteed, just that you have
a game this Sunday and you want to you want
to win, You want to put out the best team
that you possibly can. And so it's that short term,
long term situation that you have to look at. And
right now, at three and two, you play the defending
(24:46):
Super Bowl champs. This Sunday. You want to put your
best foot forward now and leave it at that and
then let them make that decision from there which guy
is going to give them the best chance to win.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Now, you know you mentioned the rapport with Justin Jefferson.
I wanted to ask you to get a little more
specific on the JJ conversation because obviously his his numbers
the last two weeks when you went across the pond improved.
Against Pittsburgh he had ten catches for one hundred and
twenty six yards. Against Cleveland he had seven catches for
one hundred and twenty three yards. After you know, getting
(25:20):
off to a slow start from Justin Jefferson's standards through
the first three weeks. How much of those numbers are
rapport with Carson Wentz. How much of that is return
of Jordan Addison to maybe alleviate some pressure. How much
of that is just Pittsburgh and Cleveland's more likely to
play man to man than most teams.
Speaker 11 (25:38):
I think it's it's all the above. I mean it.
You know, having Jordan Addison there helps you know the
aggressive coverage that you're going to get from those two teams.
That's going to help. I mean Philadelphia is a team
that plays a lot of a lot of man to
man and you know they've got some injury issues at
(26:01):
the cornerback position. So between Addison and Jefferson, somebody I
think should have a favorable matchup in that regard. But
it's just it's it's hard to it's hard to describe,
but you can see it, right, you just see the
confidence that Wentz has and the main the big one
that stands out in my mind is just the twenty
(26:24):
one yard back shoulder fade that he threw the Jefferson
in that fourth quarter drive when he went I believe
it was eight for eight, uh you know, with two
and two minutes and forty nine seconds for the touchdown
to Addison, So you know that he was getting rid
of the football quickly. He was nicked up. He wasn't
(26:44):
interested in running around and hold on in the football.
He had to get rid of it and he did
and you know he and JJ made a play. So
that's that's what I'm talking about, right, I mean, that's
you know, you look at a j. Brown and what
you know, what Jalen hurts, what they can do, It's
it's a pretty similar situation. I know, they're arguing about
(27:05):
getting him the football earlier.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
And all that.
Speaker 11 (27:09):
You know, it's it's the wide receiver drama that you
get everywhere that you know the number one receiver isn't
getting the ball enough. But that's why he's the number
one receiver. So it makes you laugh, makes you cry,
I guess, but just yeah, I just want to see
if that can continue and continue to grow. That's one
(27:30):
of the things I'm looking forward to seeing this Sunday.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
So going into that Cleveland game, I had some huge
concerns about the offensive line where we were going to
be putting on the field against their defensive line, and
you had, you know, Blake Brandell playing center for the
first time in his career. Even throughout the game, Christian Darris,
you know, wasn't out there in key moments, key drives
in the fourth quarter. You're dealing with guys like Joe
(27:54):
Hubert who was an undrafted free agent who has hasn't
played in the NFL. Are you, well, let me ask
you this way, did did koc scheme stuff up to
help that offensive line in that game? Or is that
just hey, guys that were younger guys that were backups
who just who elevated their play that day.
Speaker 11 (28:13):
Yeah, I did. I actually use some some game film
and did a video on it. It's on YouTube Buying
the Sky if you want to see it. But there
it's a it's a combo. It's kind of a combination
of everything, and to your points tend to be I was.
I was as worried as anybody. You're concerned about it
because the defensive front from Cleveland was really good. It's
(28:37):
one of the better defensive fronts in the league, and
now you're going up against three at least three, you know,
backups for lack of a better term, that we had
to put in up front, and I think for listeners
it kind of it points to one thing, the difference
between going into a game and having an entire week
(29:00):
knowing that you're not going to have Brian O'Neill, knowing
that you're not going to have you know, Donovan Jackson,
you know, and knowing that you're not going to have
Ryan Kelly. You can game plan around that, and I
think there was some of that that went on. I
think Will Fries picked up a lot of the slack.
He played very very well, ran some tracks, did some
(29:21):
different run game things, that we hadn't shown much hug
So in that regard, you do get you do get creative,
you know, they did. They struggle at times. Yeah, absolutely,
But Joe Huber came in. I thought, he's a big
he's a big guy. He's a big ten offensive lineman.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (29:41):
He knows how to block the run. That's what that's
what big ten you alignment can do better than probably
any other lineman in college football. Uh. And so each
one of those guys I think played to their strengths.
Like you look at Brandell. You know, Frank Ragnow was
highly drafted by the Lions. Did Okay at guard, they
move in the center and then the light comes on. So, yeah,
(30:03):
could this be the same thing for Brandell? Well, it's
more likely to happen to go from guard to center
than it is to have success, and it is to
go from guard to tackle. Okay. You know a lot
of guards, not a lot of guards that move to
tackle and have success. It's more likely to go the
other way. So I thought brand Dell played pretty well too.
So and we get by to the next couple of
(30:26):
weeks with this group, until everybody gets healthy and have
some success. I'm very encouraged by it.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
All right, let's talk about the defensive side of the ball.
Jonathan Garnard kind of popped up out of nowhere on
that injury part yesterday with a hamstring. He was limited
in practice. I'm guessing in the next couple of hours
we'll get more information on his availability for Sunday. But
is Jonathan Garnard the best player on this defense? And
if he can't go, what does that mean?
Speaker 11 (30:52):
He's the most consistent, he's the most well rounded he can.
You know, his ability to play the run, I think
is very under aided. I know that the lot you know,
people are are concerned, and especially with the numbers that
we put up on the ground. I think it's a
factor of a couple of things. One of it's, you know,
not having been Ginkle out there, because Ben Ginkle's very
(31:15):
very good and technique wise and in the scheme against
the run. And then you know, you look at the
teams that we just got them playing between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
I mean AFC North, they put extra they they they
sub linement in for tight ends. I mean, they run
the football in that division. But we haven't gone up
(31:37):
against our teams at like Philly are three wide and yeah,
they say they have safe Barkley, but you know, they
like they want to throw the football, and so the
challenge is going to evolve. My point is, I don't
think Philadelphia can mimic Cleveland or Pittsburgh's run game in
a week. They can't reinvent the wheel. They've got their
(31:59):
own problems of front that they're trying to deal with.
So it's going to be a different style of running game.
Hopefully it better suits what we have.
Speaker 7 (32:08):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (32:08):
But yeah, we need we need a Jonathan Grenard uh
as much. He's the most valuable guy I think on
the defense. What's put it that way?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
What have you seen out of Philadelphia's offense that's different
from last year? They have a new play caller, but
you know, a guy who looked like the best player
in the National Football League last year has has dropped
two yards per carry? Uh? Is his running game declining?
Is it? Is it play calling? Is the offensive line
having issues?
Speaker 5 (32:37):
What?
Speaker 3 (32:37):
What do you what do you see is going wrong
with the Philadelphia offense?
Speaker 11 (32:41):
Now? They you know, and and my Loto mentioned it
during the week. He's talking about focus and being prepared
and all that, and that's I think that's the biggest
thing is just that front. That that the five guys
that they've they have up front, they've got injuries, uh
at the center position, at the right guard position, with
(33:01):
some you know, some new bodies in there not handling
movement very well. They did a decent job in pass
pro at times against the Giants. You know, Hurts had
had there were a number of plays where he had
plenty of time. And then kind of being simplistic from
a formation standpoint, I mean, this is the most you know,
(33:24):
they don't suck offensively very much. You've got a three
wide offense pretty much the whole time, or you know,
most of the time except that they're doing the toush
push or whatever they do, and you know, in the
in the deep red zone. So it's kind of hard
to motion and shift and be misleading when you're not
you know, rolling in and out different types of personnel.
(33:48):
So I think it limits the creativity. But consistency is
probably the big thing. I mean, Saquon Barkley started the
game off against the Giants with the eighteen yard run.
He's still one of, if not the best backs in
the league, and that's the part that I wonder about
is whether Philadelphia is desperate enough to win to say,
(34:11):
you know what, if we have to hand it off
to Saquon Barkley thirty five times, we'll do that, right.
I mean, normally they're not going to They're going to
reduce his workload, keep them fresh for the run at
the end of the year. But if they don't start
using them now more, there may not be a run
at the end of the year. I mean, that's what
Philly fans are wonnering. Is this twenty twenty three or
(34:32):
twenty twenty four, because there was a bump. There were
bumps in the road both years. Twenty twenty three went
a lot further south. And yeah, I think Saquon Barkley
could be just what this team needs. It might be
their best defense, so to speak, going into this football game.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
All right, So then let's let's say they want to
get the ball to Saquon Barkley on the ground. The
Vikings defense, if there's been some flaws this year, it's
been stif hopping the run. Uh Robinson tore him up
in Week two against Atlanta in Dublin. Kenneth Gainwell, they're
backup running back tore them apart. Quinchawn Judkins got his
for Cleveland last two weeks ago. What has been the
(35:16):
issue with the Vikings run defense and does having Cashman
back help that in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 11 (35:26):
No question about that. I think not having Van Ginkle
for a lot of that matters. I think, you know,
with guys like Levi, Drake Rodriguez, Redmond, Jalen Redmond, you know,
they're young. These guys are still young, and a lot
of it's technique. I don't necessarily see it as a
(35:47):
schematic thing. You know, we we stopped we stopped the
running game with with Bullard Artillery last year, right, and
so it's not that we don't have the talent. Yeah,
I just think it's it's a it's a technique. A
lot of it's a technique issue. And yeah, I mean,
patients are running is running thin. We got to get better.
(36:08):
But at the same time, those younger players like Turner
and Redmond and Drake Rodriguez are learning, and they're learning
very quickly, and it's it's imperative that those guys promote,
you know, improve and even Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave,
these are just a new scheme for them as well.
(36:28):
But they all have to get better at the techniques
that Flores wants to wants to use. And you know,
we if we can slow down Saquon Barkley, that's a
huge improvement.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
A couple more questions with Pete Bursach analysts for the Vikings,
right and nowhere he'll beyond Sunday at noon right here
on the fan pregame starts at ten o'clock with PTPA
and of course muss I wanted to ask you about
more about the the Eagles offense and even when they
(37:04):
were winning early on, it seemed like there was a
disconnect here with Aj Brown and the coaching staff. Kind
of seems like he was kind of having some Stefan
Diggs moments with some some some cryptic stuff and he
wasn't producing. Uh, what do you see in terms of
why there's been a disconnect with the passing game specifically
to AJ Brown.
Speaker 11 (37:23):
I just they're not doing anything. You'll see this like
last night with Jamar Chase. Right, you see a lot
of short throws and different types of wide receiver screens
and things like that just to get them just to
get the football in his hands, right, I think we
saw that when we played Pittsburgh and Ireland. It was
(37:43):
just trying to get the football to JJ, get him
warmed up, get a you know, get him, get him going.
You don't want the first ball thrown his way to
be in a third quarter.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (37:53):
And they're just not creating touches for you know, for him,
for Brown, and I think that's frustrating Frohm. And so
the creativity side of it. They promoted from within, uh
for the offensive coordinator position. They can go on and
get some you know, hot shot coordinators somewhere else. Uh.
(38:15):
And so there are a lot of question marks that
and a lot of meetings too. That's another thing that
you hear. You know, the players had a player, you know,
play these separate meetings and discuss what's going on and
all that whatever whatever that is. But it's a concern.
And you know, he's twenty nine years old. They awe
(38:36):
him a lot of money. They need to get they
need to get him the football, I think a little
more often. And their passing game has been a little simplistic.
There's been a lot of stuff out about just not
a very complex passing game. And so it's you know,
it's just when when you the better, your players are
(38:58):
the center your playbook needs to be. So if you
have the lead, best running back and the league's best
offensive line, you're throwing at a J.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Brown.
Speaker 11 (39:08):
You know you're throwing Brown. And you don't need to
be complicated, right, You don't need to be fancy. You
just go out there and do what you do and
you're going to be successful. Well, because of a lack
of execution and some other things, I think that they're
going to need to get a little bit more creative
and find a way to get him involved a little
bit sooner in the game.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Pete.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
I always love chatting with you, and we'll hear from
you on Sunday morning.
Speaker 11 (39:34):
Oh thanks be, I'll talkulator all right.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
DOC to you, Lator, Pete, Pete Burstuch Analyst, Vikings Radio
Network pregame at ten, kick off the boom shortly after
noon on Sunday, right here on the Fan and the
Vikings Audio Network. We'll be Smoke Show from Glencoe in
Studio for the next hour next right here on the
fits
And when comes off, Tom has gone again and fills
in the three there.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Can be an answer Tenby.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And in those hours of darkness was turning out royalty
to the fans. Mis John ta be.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Tenna be. Tell to me tenab tenno be the desert,
tell me, hey, welcome to day two of the ten
(01:04):
Fitzgerald to come and Dan Cole off again today golfing
somewhere in the upper Midwest. But I will be here
Brandon Maleski tennebe for the next three hours. Devin with
me as well. Hello, Devin, Hello, lots of lifeboats today
at twelve thirty. Of course, you know Friday before a
Vikings Eagles game, we got get Pete Bursa John analysts
(01:25):
for the Vikings Raady Network, so he'll join about twenty
five minutes from now. We'll be at one o'clock today.
She's actually going to be in for the entire one
o'clock hour because we will not play program passor today,
but we will get bonus b Joe O'Donnell played by
play voice on the radio side for the Minnesota while
joins the two o'clock and then Justin Guard Sideline analyst
for the Gopher Radio Network he'll join us live from
(01:47):
Huntington Banks Stadium at two thirty previewing that Gopher Nebraska
game that you'll be able to hear tonight right here
on the station. But it's Vikings Eagles Sunday and devn In.
My least favorite part of the day over the last
six seven weeks is whenever the injury report comes out.
(02:09):
I always dread looking at it. Even before the season started,
right we didn't have darrisaw CJ. Hamm was beat up
right out of the gate, and then from that point
on the offensive line, Ryan Kelly's been on there multiple
times with concussions, Brian O'Neill with the knee injury, Donovan
Jackson needing the wrist surgery after he'd just got done
(02:31):
playing a game, Aaron Jones out for a good chunk
of time, had to start the season without Jordan Addison
for three games because of suspension. That's only on the
offensive side of the ball. Defensive side of the ball.
Andrew ben Ginkels missed a couple of games, cash in
cash out, Blake Cashman has missed what four games? And
(02:51):
we finally got to the points this week where I
started to enjoy looking at the injury report again, Donovan
Jackson and looks like he's going to go. Brian O'Neil,
looks like he's going to go. Even Christian Darisa, who's
been playing. Apparently they talked it out. He's not going
to be on a pitch count this week, though he
did get the day off the other day. Cashman back
(03:13):
in the lineup, Bing Ginkle. Don't know about him, and
I guess we'll find out probably at some point to day.
But he's at least participating in practice on a limited basis.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And then.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
We had to get our legs sweeped out from under
us yesterday, went out of nowhere. Didn't even see it,
didn't even see a reporter tweet at first. It just
popped up on the injury report. Jonathan Garnard limited with
a hamstring injury. Now, maybe it's nothing. Whenever I hear hamstring,
(03:47):
I'm not. I'm usually not encouraged. Hands are scary. Yeah,
those things can pop up and linger and come right
back at you. Also, this wasn't an injury that happened
at a previous game, where hey, he's working his way
through it. He wasn't even on the injury report Wednesday,
and all of a sudden, it pops up yesterday just
happens to be the same time. Alec Lewis of The
(04:09):
Athletic also tweeted. Jonathan Garnard has recorded an average time
to pressure of two point three four seconds this season,
the quickest mark among defensive linemen with at least fifteen
total pressures. Bernard has generated more pressures in under two
and a half seconds twelve than any other Vikings pass
rusher has total pressures. Opposing offenses have attempted to slow Gernard,
(04:33):
as he has been chip blocked seventeen times, while all
other Vikings pass rushers have been chipped twenty three combined times.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
He is.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
I don't know if you can say we have an
MVP on the defense, but if it is, it's him,
right like I got. I don't know any other option.
There's no I guess vaning Goingko last year obviously had
some moments where he was very MVP like, But you're
kind of just solid every but not not elite star
power really on much of this defense. I guess if
(05:06):
you're all in on Isaiah Rodgers, I still think maybe
that was all just just one performance against Cincinnati. That's
really lifted them up. But Jonathan Garnard is the most
important piece of this defense. And now you're playing a
Philadelphia team that I think is going to rely on
the run much more than they are of the pass.
(05:27):
Maybe you can get away with it, but Devin, I'm
not so sure if And like I said, this might
be nothing. This might be a nothing burger. By the
time two hours from now and we see the injury
port come back out and it says Jonathan Garnard full
participant in practice, and then I just got myself teeth
chattering for no reason. Fine, but as of this very
moment at twelve ten pm, I'm a little concerned. After
(05:50):
I thought we had kind of gotten past all this
injury stuff.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
Yeah, this was kind of my fear the whole time
when we had all the injuries weeks ago, was once
we finally get everyone back, who's going to go down then?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Because it always feels like, how are you twenty three
and you already have that Minnesota sports mentality in you?
Speaker 6 (06:07):
It's just ingrained in my Yeah, but you know it's
the NFL. People get hurt all the time. So I
suppose for like people, I'm going to call you a kid.
I shouldn't call you a kid. People that are your age.
You've experienced like nothing in Minnesota sports. At least, I
even though I didn't get to see the Vikings in
the super Bowl in the seventies, at least I got
(06:30):
to witness two World Series victories in eighty seven and
ninety one from the Twins, I've at least seen like
elite Minnesota Vikings teams, like the nineteen ninety eight Vikings
is probably the best team I've ever seen in the state,
even though they didn't even get to the Big Game.
I at least saw like a wild playoff run in
two those three You've like witnessed none of this. Now
we have pop up seasons at least five years with
(06:52):
at least the Wolves are starting to come around a
little bit before.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
That's true. All right, We're gonna have to break a
little bit early because I want to get to Big
Bites next, because we have a lot of a lot
of stuff to talk about with only one segment really, uh,
kind of one open segment throughout the rest of the show.
So we're gonna do Big Bites next.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You should have a keyword over though, correct, Evan, Yes.
Speaker 6 (07:10):
I do the fan and two minutes a junk truck
want to give you a shot to win some bonus
bucks with our national cash contest. Enter the keyword dollar
at kfan dot com. Now for your shot at winning
that's keyword dollar, enter it now at kf a n
dot com.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Hey ten of Fitzgerald Devin with me as well time
four big bites. Let's begin with the icy hot Bowl
last night Bengals versus Steelers. Bengals had the lead, then
a Rodgs took over.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Steelers need junk yardage second and twenty from their own
thirty two down six on the road on Thursday night,
two thirty one to go, fourth quarter, Rogers having a
gun four by two and two. He faints back near left,
Hash runs out of it hit he fires DA one out.
Speaker 7 (08:36):
Can twenty five twenty Steelers the second of the nine
from Pat for he goes sixty eight. Your Bards got
to strike.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Hey tison at.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Thirty and an extra point could have been a Steelers' lead.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, the Steelers take over late, they take the lead,
but Joe Flacco leads the Bengals down the field and
it ends with this.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Thirty six yard field goal try for the lead eleven
seconds to go down one left to right kick for
McPherson out of the holda rica first fourth field goal
of the game and the lead snap spot right put
the kickers in the air. He's got the lad He
drive it thirty three thirty one, Cincinnati's seven seconds remain.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah. Before that play, t Higgins actually caught a pass
looked like he could have easily scored. He slides down
at about the five yard line. So they can take
a bunch of chunk off at the clock and the
Cincinnia Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers last night. They snapped
their four game losing streak. They win thirty three to
thirty one. Both quarterbacks in this one extremely good. Joe
Flacco thirty one of forty seven for three hundred and
(09:49):
forty two yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions. Jamar Chase at
a franchise record with sixteen catches for one hundred and
sixty one yards in a tuddy and then on the
other side, Aaron Rodgers twenty three of thirty four for
two hundred and forty nine yards, four touchdowns, two interceptions.
I don't know what it is about Aaron Rodgers this year.
(10:10):
And maybe this will change. I feel like I don't
dislike him as much this year as I have in
the past. Seems like he's happy. Yeah, Like, well, you know, obviously,
when he was with the Packers for so long, you
don't like him because he's the place for the Packers
and he was smug and he was arrogant and he
did the discount double check celebration, and you know, then
he went to New York and he still seems to
(10:30):
kind of be grumpy Aaron Rodgers and says some controversial things.
And now I just feel like, maybe now that he's
over the forty year mark, like he's just kind of
matured a little bit and he's smiling and happy. I'm like, now,
I wasn't cheering for him last night because I still
have that ingrained in me. But I'm like, I just wasn't.
I wasn't hate watching Aaron Rodgers as much as I
(10:52):
have in the past. So maybe he's evolving and turning
over a new leaf.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
He might be say he's in the NFC RIGHTFC big bite.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
He was in the FC last year as well. A
couple of Major League Baseball games. The Dodgers look like
they're about to go to the World Series.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
That's a line round the center field. That's downfa Ba's head.
Here comes Smith fail. It's got a great ard. It's
cut off from the field, not in time. Tommy Emman
puts the Dodgers in front head that on the first pitch,
delivers of the clutch again and the Dodgers came to Messowski.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
At the sixth heading. Yeah, Edmund with the RBI single
gives him the lead and then it's closed out by
the Dodgers. Cut it game.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
The Dodgers win it. Sasaki closes the door. Los Angeles
wins hid three to one. They are eight and one
in this postseason, steam rolling their way through this playoff run,
and they are a win away from their fifth in
Al pittitt in the last nine years.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, Dodgers up three to nothing in this series, about
to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers. As you just heard on
the play by play called They're eight and one so
far in this postseason. In this series against Milwaukee, Brewers
have scored just three runs in twenty seven innings. Game
four is tonight in la versus Milliwaukee seven thirty start show.
Hey Otani on the Mountain Tonight for La and then
(12:27):
in the American League.
Speaker 8 (12:29):
Therrero drives the ball the other way. Ken zones going back,
he's at the wall, that's gone. Glegg Junior strikes again
with his fifth home run of the postseason. Toronto takes
the run right back.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah, Mariners had loved this series. Two nothing. Blue Jays
have won the last two to even it up two
to two. That win last night, eight to two. He
just heard the highlight Vladimir Guerrero his fifth home run
of the postseason and kind of the story. Last name
was Max Scherzer. Another old guy, another guy who's Flacco
rodger Age. He had a tumultuous end to his season
(13:05):
where he because it was so bad he wasn't even
on the Alds roster for their first series. But then
he gets to start last night and gives up just
two runs on three hits over five and two thirds innings.
At one point the manager comes out looks like he's
gonna pull them, and he had the He basically had
his own Jack Morris moment of you are not taking
(13:26):
me out of this game, and he finished it off
with the strike out. So good for Max Scherzer. Yeah,
Toronto and Seattle that one's at five o'clock today at
the Pivotal at game five in the ALCS Big Bites.
The Gophers playing a little Friday night lights tonight. It's
under the lifes.
Speaker 9 (13:44):
Boy, this is great, especially with NEA. We don't have
a lot of high school football in Minnesota today, so
crowd is going to be absolutely elite and just looking
forward to the opportunity to be hosting a top twenty
five team here ranked team, a really good Nebraska team
and a really good Goper team, so it should be
great matchup.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, and PJ talks about Matt Rule, the head coach
for Nebraska.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
I think Matt Rule's done a really good job of
using the resources that Nebraska has and building the best
team he possibly could here in year three and you
can just see it progressing year one. Not much control
of that here, two, you're building it, and then year three,
I mean you look top to bottom. Their depth is
as good as anybody in the country and as good
as anybody we've played.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
I'm going to talk a little bit about this with
Justin Guard when he joins at two thirty today. But
I don't like how PJ likes Matt Rules so much
because I love the little rivalry of PJ. Fleck and
Scott Frost. When Frost was there, Frost just despise PJ.
Fleck would always make little snide comments about the way
(14:44):
PJ runs this program, and then the Gophers will just
go out and kick their butt every time. And I
miss that. Gophers, excuse me. The Cornhusters. By the way,
five and one in the season. The only loss is
just a three point loss to Michigan. They are up
to number twenty five in the Associated Press Pull after
two games in a row now where they've come up
big in the fourth quarter against Maryland and Michigan State.
(15:06):
And obviously their quarterback Riola, he's been the story. He's
completed seventy three point one percent of as passes for
ninety one yards, sixteen touchdowns and five interceptions. Gophers have
one five straight against Nebraska, six and one under PJ. Fleck.
This is a different Nebraska team, but hopefully some of
that will carry over tonight seven o'clock start tonight pregame
(15:28):
at five. That game will be heard right here on
the fans. You can just stick around all day. Big
bites Minnesota Wild or in the Nation's Capital to take
on the Capital six o'clock start tonight and John Hines.
Everyone's freaking out about their five on five play, but
not John Hines.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Things get magnified in the beginning of the season, right,
no matter what it is. I think when you look
at the you know, our game and the style of
team that we have and the type of team that
we have, I feel like we're getting them. There's things
we can certainly improve upon, but I think we have.
We've had good puck pressure, We've had some good looks.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
At this point, I think if we if we don't
focus on the end result of that and what is
our process and here's the good parts of it, here's
where we can be a little bit better, I think
it will come.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
If you want to be concerned about five on five,
that's fine. As much as you're concerned about the five
on five, you should be elated with the power play
because as of right now, it looks like the greatest
power play we've seen in franchise history. Wild already are
almost a quarter of the way to their powerplay output
from last season. In four games, they're already a quarter
of the way. Last year, they scored forty three goals
(16:37):
in the power play. They already got ten. Through four games,
they're nine consecutive goals on the powerplay, one shy of
matching the two thousand and six two thousand and seven
Sharks for the second longest streak in NHL history, and
the nineteen eighty eight nineteen ninety nine Penguins hold the
record at twelve. So we got a chance to make
NHL history here. Let's go if we can score three,
so that means enough you shut down five on five,
(16:59):
but we just score more goals on the power play.
Tonight we'll break without a five on five goal, we'll
break the NHL record. John Hines also talks about a
guy running that power play. That would be the rookie
defenseman Ze Billiam It's one of his skill sets, you know.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
I think that he's probably some of the playoff experience
last year helped him. And then I think coming in
even in preseason, I think he was trying to do
some things. Now I think he starts to realize how
quick your decision making needs to be and this fine
tune things of habits and details at this level that
he's learning, and he's learning quick.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Now when you combine that with his.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Natural ability to run a power play at his offensive instincts.
That's why I think it's progressing.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Love the way Zeve is progressing. You can see his
confidence growing every single game this season, and the Dallas
Stars game their last time out, I thought that was
the best he's played in a Wild uniform. And you
can just tell he's playing with aggression. He's jumping up
in the play, he's getting involved in the offensive zone,
but he's doing it with calm and confidence in himself
(18:05):
that he can make the right play. He's not scared
to make mistakes out there, and I think that's very
important for a rookie so early on in his career.
By the way, the Wild did send another defenseman, the
other young defenseman, David Yeerchik, down to the miners. I
have not been too excited about his play so far
in his limited action with the Wild, ever since they
(18:25):
acquired him for a lot of prospects, a lot of
draft picks early in last season. By the way, Philip
Gustafson will get the start tonight for the while that's
a six o'clock start, I'm going to assume, and I
probably shouldn't assume I'm going to assume maybe they're on
cool and wait, tonight, I'll have to look at the schedule.
I shouldn't have done that. Last one. Big bites go
(18:47):
for basketball team. They beat North Dakota State by a
score of what was the score? Hold on, I'll get
it here. Eighty to fifty four exhibition last night they
beat North Dakota State, and Nico Medved was happy with
the with the initial start, felt good to.
Speaker 10 (19:06):
Be back out there.
Speaker 11 (19:07):
You know, this is this game.
Speaker 10 (19:08):
Typically we've done close scrimmages in these situations. But I thought,
you know, before when we scheduled this, it'd be great.
First year we can play Division ones. Thought'd be great
for us to play a game against kind of a
regional school. I think it's got a great program. Get
tested right away, and you could tell there were some
nerves early. Thought our guys handled it really really well
(19:29):
and played hard and finally started getting some stops and
getting out in transition a little bit. So it kind
of feels good to get that first one under your
belt and ready to keep growing.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
And it felt good for cad Tyson to the North
Carolina transfer twenty eight points last night. He was nine
to thirteen from the field, six of nine from three
point line. Also perfect from the free throw line, making
all four attempts, So a nice debut for the transfer
from North Carolina Kye Tyson. The Gophers began regular season
action on November three, when they host Gardner Web. That's
(20:00):
it for Big Bite. The analyst for the Vikings rate
and network, Pete Versus joins the fits next to Manday.
(20:23):
All Right, Vikings sick on the Eagles Sunday at noon
at US Bank Stadium. So when it's a Friday on
the ten fit rail before Vikings game, we got to
have the analysts for the Vikings radio network, Pete Burst.
So Pete joins us. Now, Hello, Peter, how are you
great to have you back on us soil.
Speaker 11 (20:39):
It is good to be back, Tanna, thank you very much.
And yeah it's wide open spaces. It's very ramped over there,
but beautiful and old. But yeah, it's it's great to
be back.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
What did you think about the trip? Was the was
two games back to back across the pond a little
too much?
Speaker 11 (21:02):
No, I mean you'd like to think that it was,
but I mean, I I really, I really gotta give
a tip of the cap to guys like Paul Martin
and and their group, the logistics group, where I mean
literally they make it so easy that you just have
to know one time, you just need to know where
(21:23):
to be, uh and they do all the rest from
the passports to customs that, I mean, everything else, so
they make it as smooth as possible. And then I
mean just the logistics involved and everything. And that's been
kind of the value of the Vikings having gone over
there so many times. I mean, that was our fifth
trip to London, just we've you know, we've done it before.
(21:46):
And you know, the proof I think was that was
a factor. I think in that in that football game
against the Cleveland Browns at least that you know, having
been there the entire week and you know, being able
to put in a good week not losing anything because
the coaches are not in their offices. And I mean,
(22:07):
there's there's a reason that building in Egan is so
big because they need all that stuff and you can't
move all of it. But they still found a way
to get enough over there to make, you know, to
come up with the win. So I think it's it's
a big win and you know, you can't overlook operations
and everything else, the equipment staff and everybody else that
(22:29):
worked their tail off to make that happen.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
I know our listeners are getting sick of the Wentz
McCarthy talk, but I'm going to ask it one more
time because I don't know if I've heard you talk
about it. If if you were the head coach in
the Minnesota while and this is this is a hypothetical,
if JJ McCarthy was one that's the hypothetical. If JJ
McCarthy was one hundred percent and you were the head
coach in Theissida Vikings, who would you start a quarterback
this week?
Speaker 11 (22:53):
Yeah, I mean that's that's a tough one. I mean,
in my opinion right now, uh Arson Wentz is playing better.
I mean, and of the two and you. One thing
I did see in London against Cleveland is that he's
finally developing a rapport with Justin Jefferson. Right. He's finally
(23:16):
giving him some shots at the fifty to fifty ball.
He's finally hitting them with the back shoulder fade on
press coverage here and there. It's it's curious to see
if that continues to develop, if there's more to that
relationship that can be squeezed out of it, you know,
(23:38):
and then we talked about J. J. McCarthy. Obviously you're
talking about the future, and so I mean, these are
these are high level decisions that coach and the and
quasi del famensa need to make and say how long
until we turn everything over? I mean, obviously, this guy's
our future. That's why we drafted them at when you know,
(23:59):
when we did the top of the first round, they
knew that when they drafted him that someday it would
be his football team. And so the question is how
long do you want to delay that? How badly do
you want to win now? And that's I mean, if
you're if you're a coach, you want to win now
right you know, next year and the year after. You
(24:23):
don't have the time. You can't worry about that stuff
because it's not guaranteed. Nothing's guaranteed, just that you have
a game this Sunday and you want to you want
to win, You want to put out the best team
that you possibly can. And so it's that short term,
long term situation that you have to look at. And
right now, at three and two, you play the defending
(24:46):
Super Bowl champs. This Sunday. You want to put your
best foot forward now and leave it at that and
then let them make that decision from there which guy
is going to give them the best chance to win.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Now, you know you mentioned the rapport with Justin Jefferson.
I wanted to ask you to get a little more
specific on the JJ conversation because obviously his his numbers
the last two weeks when you went across the pond improved.
Against Pittsburgh he had ten catches for one hundred and
twenty six yards. Against Cleveland he had seven catches for
one hundred and twenty three yards. After you know, getting
(25:20):
off to a slow start from Justin Jefferson's standards through
the first three weeks. How much of those numbers are
rapport with Carson Wentz. How much of that is return
of Jordan Addison to maybe alleviate some pressure. How much
of that is just Pittsburgh and Cleveland's more likely to
play man to man than most teams.
Speaker 11 (25:38):
I think it's it's all the above. I mean it.
You know, having Jordan Addison there helps you know the
aggressive coverage that you're going to get from those two teams.
That's going to help. I mean Philadelphia is a team
that plays a lot of a lot of man to
man and you know they've got some injury issues at
(26:01):
the cornerback position. So between Addison and Jefferson, somebody I
think should have a favorable matchup in that regard. But
it's just it's it's hard to it's hard to describe,
but you can see it, right, you just see the
confidence that Wentz has and the main the big one
that stands out in my mind is just the twenty
(26:24):
one yard back shoulder fade that he threw the Jefferson
in that fourth quarter drive when he went I believe
it was eight for eight, uh you know, with two
and two minutes and forty nine seconds for the touchdown
to Addison, So you know that he was getting rid
of the football quickly. He was nicked up. He wasn't
(26:44):
interested in running around and hold on in the football.
He had to get rid of it and he did
and you know he and JJ made a play. So
that's that's what I'm talking about, right, I mean, that's
you know, you look at a j. Brown and what
you know, what Jalen hurts, what they can do, It's
it's a pretty similar situation. I know, they're arguing about
(27:05):
getting him the football earlier.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
And all that.
Speaker 11 (27:09):
You know, it's it's the wide receiver drama that you
get everywhere that you know the number one receiver isn't
getting the ball enough. But that's why he's the number
one receiver. So it makes you laugh, makes you cry,
I guess, but just yeah, I just want to see
if that can continue and continue to grow. That's one
(27:30):
of the things I'm looking forward to seeing this Sunday.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
So going into that Cleveland game, I had some huge
concerns about the offensive line where we were going to
be putting on the field against their defensive line, and
you had, you know, Blake Brandell playing center for the
first time in his career. Even throughout the game, Christian Darris,
you know, wasn't out there in key moments, key drives
in the fourth quarter. You're dealing with guys like Joe
(27:54):
Hubert who was an undrafted free agent who has hasn't
played in the NFL. Are you, well, let me ask
you this way, did did koc scheme stuff up to
help that offensive line in that game? Or is that
just hey, guys that were younger guys that were backups
who just who elevated their play that day.
Speaker 11 (28:13):
Yeah, I did. I actually use some some game film
and did a video on it. It's on YouTube Buying
the Sky if you want to see it. But there
it's a it's a combo. It's kind of a combination
of everything, and to your points tend to be I was.
I was as worried as anybody. You're concerned about it
because the defensive front from Cleveland was really good. It's
(28:37):
one of the better defensive fronts in the league, and
now you're going up against three at least three, you know,
backups for lack of a better term, that we had
to put in up front, and I think for listeners
it kind of it points to one thing, the difference
between going into a game and having an entire week
(29:00):
knowing that you're not going to have Brian O'Neill, knowing
that you're not going to have you know, Donovan Jackson,
you know, and knowing that you're not going to have
Ryan Kelly. You can game plan around that, and I
think there was some of that that went on. I
think Will Fries picked up a lot of the slack.
He played very very well, ran some tracks, did some
(29:21):
different run game things, that we hadn't shown much hug
So in that regard, you do get you do get creative,
you know, they did. They struggle at times. Yeah, absolutely,
But Joe Huber came in. I thought, he's a big
he's a big guy. He's a big ten offensive lineman.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (29:41):
He knows how to block the run. That's what that's
what big ten you alignment can do better than probably
any other lineman in college football. Uh. And so each
one of those guys I think played to their strengths.
Like you look at Brandell. You know, Frank Ragnow was
highly drafted by the Lions. Did Okay at guard, they
move in the center and then the light comes on. So, yeah,
(30:03):
could this be the same thing for Brandell? Well, it's
more likely to happen to go from guard to center
than it is to have success, and it is to
go from guard to tackle. Okay. You know a lot
of guards, not a lot of guards that move to
tackle and have success. It's more likely to go the
other way. So I thought brand Dell played pretty well too.
So and we get by to the next couple of
(30:26):
weeks with this group, until everybody gets healthy and have
some success. I'm very encouraged by it.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
All right, let's talk about the defensive side of the ball.
Jonathan Garnard kind of popped up out of nowhere on
that injury part yesterday with a hamstring. He was limited
in practice. I'm guessing in the next couple of hours
we'll get more information on his availability for Sunday. But
is Jonathan Garnard the best player on this defense? And
if he can't go, what does that mean?
Speaker 11 (30:52):
He's the most consistent, he's the most well rounded he can.
You know, his ability to play the run, I think
is very under aided. I know that the lot you know,
people are are concerned, and especially with the numbers that
we put up on the ground. I think it's a
factor of a couple of things. One of it's, you know,
not having been Ginkle out there, because Ben Ginkle's very
(31:15):
very good and technique wise and in the scheme against
the run. And then you know, you look at the
teams that we just got them playing between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
I mean AFC North, they put extra they they they
sub linement in for tight ends. I mean, they run
the football in that division. But we haven't gone up
(31:37):
against our teams at like Philly are three wide and yeah,
they say they have safe Barkley, but you know, they
like they want to throw the football, and so the
challenge is going to evolve. My point is, I don't
think Philadelphia can mimic Cleveland or Pittsburgh's run game in
a week. They can't reinvent the wheel. They've got their
(31:59):
own problems of front that they're trying to deal with.
So it's going to be a different style of running game.
Hopefully it better suits what we have.
Speaker 7 (32:08):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (32:08):
But yeah, we need we need a Jonathan Grenard uh
as much. He's the most valuable guy I think on
the defense. What's put it that way?
Speaker 3 (32:19):
What have you seen out of Philadelphia's offense that's different
from last year? They have a new play caller, but
you know, a guy who looked like the best player
in the National Football League last year has has dropped
two yards per carry? Uh? Is his running game declining?
Is it? Is it play calling? Is the offensive line
having issues?
Speaker 5 (32:37):
What?
Speaker 3 (32:37):
What do you what do you see is going wrong
with the Philadelphia offense?
Speaker 11 (32:41):
Now? They you know, and and my Loto mentioned it
during the week. He's talking about focus and being prepared
and all that, and that's I think that's the biggest
thing is just that front. That that the five guys
that they've they have up front, they've got injuries, uh
at the center position, at the right guard position, with
(33:01):
some you know, some new bodies in there not handling
movement very well. They did a decent job in pass
pro at times against the Giants. You know, Hurts had
had there were a number of plays where he had
plenty of time. And then kind of being simplistic from
a formation standpoint, I mean, this is the most you know,
(33:24):
they don't suck offensively very much. You've got a three
wide offense pretty much the whole time, or you know,
most of the time except that they're doing the toush
push or whatever they do, and you know, in the
in the deep red zone. So it's kind of hard
to motion and shift and be misleading when you're not
you know, rolling in and out different types of personnel.
(33:48):
So I think it limits the creativity. But consistency is
probably the big thing. I mean, Saquon Barkley started the
game off against the Giants with the eighteen yard run.
He's still one of, if not the best backs in
the league, and that's the part that I wonder about
is whether Philadelphia is desperate enough to win to say,
(34:11):
you know what, if we have to hand it off
to Saquon Barkley thirty five times, we'll do that, right.
I mean, normally they're not going to They're going to
reduce his workload, keep them fresh for the run at
the end of the year. But if they don't start
using them now more, there may not be a run
at the end of the year. I mean, that's what
Philly fans are wonnering. Is this twenty twenty three or
(34:32):
twenty twenty four, because there was a bump. There were
bumps in the road both years. Twenty twenty three went
a lot further south. And yeah, I think Saquon Barkley
could be just what this team needs. It might be
their best defense, so to speak, going into this football game.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
All right, So then let's let's say they want to
get the ball to Saquon Barkley on the ground. The
Vikings defense, if there's been some flaws this year, it's
been stif hopping the run. Uh Robinson tore him up
in Week two against Atlanta in Dublin. Kenneth Gainwell, they're
backup running back tore them apart. Quinchawn Judkins got his
for Cleveland last two weeks ago. What has been the
(35:16):
issue with the Vikings run defense and does having Cashman
back help that in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 11 (35:26):
No question about that. I think not having Van Ginkle
for a lot of that matters. I think, you know,
with guys like Levi, Drake Rodriguez, Redmond, Jalen Redmond, you know,
they're young. These guys are still young, and a lot
of it's technique. I don't necessarily see it as a
(35:47):
schematic thing. You know, we we stopped we stopped the
running game with with Bullard Artillery last year, right, and
so it's not that we don't have the talent. Yeah,
I just think it's it's a it's a technique. A
lot of it's a technique issue. And yeah, I mean,
patients are running is running thin. We got to get better.
(36:08):
But at the same time, those younger players like Turner
and Redmond and Drake Rodriguez are learning, and they're learning
very quickly, and it's it's imperative that those guys promote,
you know, improve and even Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave,
these are just a new scheme for them as well.
(36:28):
But they all have to get better at the techniques
that Flores wants to wants to use. And you know,
we if we can slow down Saquon Barkley, that's a
huge improvement.
Speaker 3 (36:43):
A couple more questions with Pete Bursach analysts for the Vikings,
right and nowhere he'll beyond Sunday at noon right here
on the fan pregame starts at ten o'clock with PTPA
and of course muss I wanted to ask you about
more about the the Eagles offense and even when they
(37:04):
were winning early on, it seemed like there was a
disconnect here with Aj Brown and the coaching staff. Kind
of seems like he was kind of having some Stefan
Diggs moments with some some some cryptic stuff and he
wasn't producing. Uh, what do you see in terms of
why there's been a disconnect with the passing game specifically
to AJ Brown.
Speaker 11 (37:23):
I just they're not doing anything. You'll see this like
last night with Jamar Chase. Right, you see a lot
of short throws and different types of wide receiver screens
and things like that just to get them just to
get the football in his hands, right, I think we
saw that when we played Pittsburgh and Ireland. It was
(37:43):
just trying to get the football to JJ, get him
warmed up, get a you know, get him, get him going.
You don't want the first ball thrown his way to
be in a third quarter.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Uh.
Speaker 11 (37:53):
And they're just not creating touches for you know, for him,
for Brown, and I think that's frustrating Frohm. And so
the creativity side of it. They promoted from within, uh
for the offensive coordinator position. They can go on and
get some you know, hot shot coordinators somewhere else. Uh.
(38:15):
And so there are a lot of question marks that
and a lot of meetings too. That's another thing that
you hear. You know, the players had a player, you know,
play these separate meetings and discuss what's going on and
all that whatever whatever that is. But it's a concern.
And you know, he's twenty nine years old. They awe
(38:36):
him a lot of money. They need to get they
need to get him the football, I think a little
more often. And their passing game has been a little simplistic.
There's been a lot of stuff out about just not
a very complex passing game. And so it's you know,
it's just when when you the better, your players are
(38:58):
the center your playbook needs to be. So if you
have the lead, best running back and the league's best
offensive line, you're throwing at a J.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Brown.
Speaker 11 (39:08):
You know you're throwing Brown. And you don't need to
be complicated, right, You don't need to be fancy. You
just go out there and do what you do and
you're going to be successful. Well, because of a lack
of execution and some other things, I think that they're
going to need to get a little bit more creative
and find a way to get him involved a little
bit sooner in the game.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Pete.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
I always love chatting with you, and we'll hear from
you on Sunday morning.
Speaker 11 (39:34):
Oh thanks be, I'll talkulator all right.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
DOC to you, Lator, Pete, Pete Burstuch Analyst, Vikings Radio
Network pregame at ten, kick off the boom shortly after
noon on Sunday, right here on the Fan and the
Vikings Audio Network. We'll be Smoke Show from Glencoe in
Studio for the next hour next right here on the
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